I never really wanted to go into music; I was always quite hesitant and sceptical, to be honest.
That’s probably from growing up in the music industry and seeing the highs and lows — the difficult lifestyle that you have. I had a very disillusioned view of it. It was only when I started playing guitar and started writing music that I saw it as a way to express myself. With the first album I recorded I didn’t have the intention of releasing the songs, so I kind of stumbled into the music career, in a way. But now I know that music is what I want to do — it’s become important to me.
My family has been very supportive of me. I’ve never felt pressured to go into music, or to adapt a certain style. There’s music in my family and everyone is kind of doing their own thing. They just told me: “Do what you love.”
I love academia and I love Âhumanities, and one of the most inspirational parts of my life is studying. I’m majoring in law and English and I chose philosophy and Âanthropology as fillers. As a young person you have all these intuitions and instinctive ideas about what it is to be alive. It’s so inspiring to be able to debate these things and search for objective truths.
I’m working with David Bottrill, who has produced albums for artists such as Placebo, Muse and Tool. It’s been an amazing process — I lived in Toronto for four months. It was also exciting to be taken out of my comfort zone. I was in a new environment working with such esteemed people, so I had to trust myself and stand up for my art.
With this new album I think I’ve taken the reins a bit with a more alternative, more stylised sound. It’s always a scary thought, though; you never how your fan base is going to take it.
Pushing personal boundaries
Musically I have lots of influences: Radiohead, Coldplay and, I suppose, Nirvana. You get to a point where you have your roots, your basic bands that you almost base your sound on. Then you get to a point where you start exposing yourself to as much new music as possible and try to push your own boundaries.
If I listen to my albums, I can often hear what music I was listening to at the time I wrote the music. It definitely filters through. At the moment I’m listening to Cage the Elephant and some indie bands from the United Kingdom, such as Autonomy. I like Shadow Club a lot; the two singles that are currently on radio are really well-written songs.
I am a law student and a musician, so I don’t have a lot of spare time, but I like to read. We did a sci-fi course at university, which I really enjoyed, especially 1984 by George Orwell. At the moment I’m reading Immortality by Milan Kundera.
I do all the normal social things — I go partying, I see my friends, I play squash, I go to the movies. I think that it’s important to expose yourself to as much art as possible, especially as an artist. So I try to be disciplined and go to as many art exhibitions as I can.
I’m a big sushi fan, so I’m always looking for the perfect sushi restaurant; Midori is pretty good. Wang Thai is just amazing for Thai food. Asian food is probably my favourite.
I’ve just finished my BA, but it will still take me two more years to get the full LLB. But I feel like I need to do something different. I’m really considering studying film, to be honest. On the music side I think that travelling will be good for me — every artist wants their music to be heard by as many people as Âpossible. The only thing I want to do is to keep pushing myself and keep Âmaking music that’s quality, that has integrity. Otherwise, what’s the point?